Absolution
by FieryArtemis
Summary: A week after Adrien's ill-fated birthday party, Nino comes to talk to him about something that's been weighing on his mind. Nino hasn't forgotten the "Bubbler" incident.


**A/N:** In honor of this week's episode and the over arching theme of trusting in your friends. Believe it or not, the majority of this oneshot was written before episode 3 "Two Black Cats" came out. Therefore, I didn't see just how fitting the trust theme was for this week. Next week's oneshot will focus on Marinette and Alya's friendship!

* * *

"Adrien, bro, can I talk to you?" Nino asked. His voice drifted through the air uncertainly as he stood in front of Adrien's table in the library. Adrien looked up at his best friend. There was a nervousness that marred Nino's face. It immediately put Adrien on his guard. He had no clue just how much of his time as the 'Bubbler' Nino remembered. It had been a week since the trainwreck of a party and Nino hadn't really said anything about it. Adrien had thought it best not to press the issue.

"Sure. What's up?" Adrien asked brightly as he used his foot to push out the chair across from him. He then promptly got his foot stuck underneath the chair. "Aw come _on_!"

"Dude your luck really sucks." Nino laughed lightly. Okay, so at least his crummy luck had made Nino smile a little. Nino bent down and helped him extricate his foot from the chair's nefarious trap. "Only you could manage something as dumb as that."

"What can I say?" Adrien grinned and shrugged. "My luck is so terrible that it's almost like a Superpower."

Nino rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't go that far dude. Just promise me you won't break any mirrors or walk under any ladders alright."

"Or let any black cats cross my path?" Adrien suggested. Nino was probably wondering why he was smiling so wide. He also probably didn't see how funny it was to Adrien. Nino gave a sigh and fell into the chair. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Yeah..." the nervous look crept back on to Nino's face again. Absentmindedly he began fiddling with his zipper.

"Hey, you know you can talk to me right?" Adrien said reassuringly.

"It's about what happened at your party last week." Nino mumbled.

Adrien bit back a wince. "What about it?" he asked chipperly.

"Um, the fact that most of the party guests were there against their will, absolutely miserable, and terrorized until Ladybug and Chat Noir showed up." replied Nino. "Adrien that was all me man."

This time Adrien couldn't keep the grimace off his face. Nino was aware he'd been the 'Bubbler.' He remembered abducting and terrorizing their classmates. That was just great! No wonder Nino was acting all nervous and upset. He knew exactly what he'd done. Adrien felt his heart sink for his best friend. "I know," Adrien replied.

The words were out of his mouth before he'd even had a chance to think about them. Their effect was instantaneous. Nino drew back, eyes wide, and stared at Adrien with a slack jaw. "I don't think anyone else realized it though!" Adrien offered quickly, gesturing emphatically with his hands. Nino continued to stare at him. Adrien pressed on, "I mean you had a full body transformation or something right. So it isn't like anyone could tell it was you and..."

"You _knew_!" hissed Nino, voice laced with horror. He leaned against the table, hands gripping the edge so tightly that his knuckles were white. That's when Adrien also realized his hands were shaking. "When did you figure it out?"

"I...uh," Adrien started. He had to stop and clear the lump that had settled in his throat that made talking awkward. "I knew the minute I saw you."

Nino drew back again. He clasped his hand over his mouth in complete shock. He looked at the table like he was unable to meet Adrien's eyes. Guilt. Nino had lingering guilt. Adrien didn't like that. His friend didn't deserve to feel guilty. "Nino, we've been friends since we were, like, five. Of course I recognized you."

"Which means this entire week you've known you were hanging out with a Supervillian." whispered Nino.

"Well..."

"You knew _all_ this time and you didn't _say_ anything?" Nino said.

"What was I supposed to say? 'Hey Nino, sure glad you didn't stay an angry bubbling DJ for very long.'" Adrien said defensively. Nino didn't seem to appreciate the sentiment. He glared at Adrien coldly. Then it withered.

"Why didn't you try to stop me? At the party. If you recognized me right away and knew what I was doing was wrong, then why didn't you try to stop me?" Nino asked. His voice was completely hollow and broken. So incredibly different from the Nino that Adrien knew.

"Because..." Adrien halted. The responsible decision, the _heroic_ decision, would've been to transform into Chat Noir right then and there to stop Nino. It was probably the decision Ladybug would've made. However, Adrien had been selfish. He had just wanted to feel like a normal teenager for once in his life. He'd wanted a birthday party and Nino, despite the fact that he'd turned into an possessed baddie, had given him one. "Because you were trying to do something nice for me."

That wiped the guilt ridden look off Nino's face pretty quickly. He looked at Adrien in stunned silence. When he finally did speak, Nino whispered, "You didn't tell me to knock it off and snap out of it because you wanted a party."

"It sounds so horrible when you put it that way." Adrien winced. "Your intentions were good, it's just that the execution was a little bit, uh, skewed. That's all."

"Skewed? You mean way off on the maniacal end of the spectrum. I somehow managed to kidnap the majority of the adults in Paris!"

"But they all came back and now you can honestly say you hold the record for the quickest kidnapping of the largest number of people!"

"Adrien!" Nino snapped as he leapt out of his chair and smacked Adrien on the side of the head. Not hard and definitely easily dodged if Adrien wanted to. Adrien flashed a grin at his buddy.

"Seriously. It's too bad that _we_ can't tell anyone about it because you could totally get yourself in the Guinness Book of World Records." Adrien said. This time he dodged Nino's swat.

"How can you joke about this? How can you act so... so..."

"Flippant, casual, nonchalant?" supplied Adrien as he ticked them off on his fingers. He could go on and on for hours. Ladybug always had a million and one ways to describe his attitude and he'd picked up the best ones.

"So normal?" Nino finished as he sunk into his chair. He held the side of his head as though he were staving off a headache.

"Would you rather me make a big deal about it?" asked Adrien, getting serious again. "Would you rather me disown you as a friend and shun you?"

"Well no. Of course not."

"That's not what friends do. Friends stand by one another even when they make mistakes. They _trust_ one another." Adrien explained, once more waving his hands in front of him as he talked. "No one got hurt in the end. Everything turned out fine once Ladybug showed up. You feel awful about what happened and you won't ever do it again. We don't need to dwell on it when we've got better things to worry about."

Nino looked at the table. "What if it happens again.

"Then I promise to stop you next time. The moment I see you waving a giant bubble wand around, I'll tackle you so fast that you'll see spots without Ladybug even being there. Okay?" Adrien said. He said it with a smile but he knew that he meant it from the bottom of his heart. Adrien would never again make a mistake that lead to Nino, or anyone else for that matter, to feel so awful about themselves. Nino looked unconvinced. Adrien pantomimed the act by hitting the heel of his palm into his open hand to create a dull clapping noise. "Boom, on the ground. No more baddie Nino!"

"Knowing you dude, you'll trip over your own two feet and face plant before you even make it few steps." Nino smirked as he rolled his eyes.

"Eh," shrugged Adrien, "Then as you were shaking your head at my ineptness I would launch my bad luck at you like the Superpower it is."

"It isn't a Superpower Adrien."

"Alright. Fine, whatever. You win this round Nino." Adrien said in a playfully sarcastic tone. He stood up. "C'mon, let's go get something to eat. I'm starving."

It seemed as though something Adrien had said stuck in Nino's mind because as he stood up, there was no trace of guilt on his face. Nino was back to being himself, or at least on his way. For that, Adrien was thankful. "Don't you always have cheese or something in your bag?" pointed out Nino.

"Yeah but for some reason it always seems to magically disappear. Just bad luck I guess."

"You're kinda weird man. Y'know that right?" Nino shook his head as he helped Adrien gather his stuff up. The pair of them left the library, joking and laughing.


End file.
